Cities near the sea are always very different from other places in terms of food, especially in product-rich sea areas like Minamata.
From shellfish to fish, shrimps and crabs to squid and octopus, there is a wide variety of ingredients available at the seaside. But the dishes here not only have a high proportion of seafood ingredients, but the cuisine and cooking style are also quite different from other places in Crescent Continent - and the reason has to do with these Nanman strangers coming and going. .
Rigarese people are not used to eating orthodox Kazuto cuisine.
Pay attention to light taste, small and fine, shredded tofu in radish soup. Not only are they mainly vegetarian dishes, they are also extremely demanding on seasoning. Except for some special ways of eating it, Kazuto almost always only uses salt, fermented bean paste, and soy sauce to prepare it. He is afraid that using too many ingredients will obscure the original taste.
However, the cooking methods in various places in Rigar are basically the opposite - Rigar people pursue a rich taste and prefer a mixture of various seasonings.
Kazuto thinks the Rigar people's taste is too strong, while the Rigar people think the New Moon Continent's food is too bland. This kind of different needs for food waxes and wanes. As the number of Nanman people coming to Crescent Continent increases and their influence spreads, an expected scene - many restaurants that are more inclined to the Rigal style - also Thus was born.
In Minamata Port, where a large number of southern merchants are active, there are many shops with tastes that are far different from traditional Japanese restaurants. After Henry and his group finished shopping and stored their belongings, they followed the seemingly familiar aroma and entered such a restaurant.
This was obviously once a Japanese hotel, but the Laman chefs remodeled it in the way they are used to - the area around the kitchen that used to be enclosed and separated from the restaurant was removed, and the tables and chairs near the door can be directly accessed. I saw chefs and helpers walking around.
Although it still doesn't feel like coming home, looking at the sausages and bacon hanging in the temporarily renovated kitchen and the cheese on the shelves, this is an alien place that is out of place in the already familiar Moon Country architectural style. The human chef and the ingredients are still a bit confusing.
The proportion of seafood in this restaurant is not very high, but it is still a restaurant that can only be built on the seaside.
The convenient transportation along the coast allows some more Rigal-style foods to be transported by ship, so even if they are not from the place of origin, they can still manage to get some authentic Rigal-style food supplies - although the price must be high due to production issues. It's a little more expensive than local home-cooked food, but it's still within the acceptable range.
They didn't know what the opportunity was for these Lamanites, who had come to the Moon Kingdom before Henry and the others, to start selling Rigal-style cuisine. But when the young Hispanic servant who clearly saw their foreign faces but still spoke a fluent and human language came up and asked what they wanted, the Luoan girl did feel a little weird.
"The stew over there looks good, would you like some?" Because he didn't know how to pronounce the word Lamantic stew in Kazuto's language, the sage spoke to the short boy in Lamantic. The other person was stunned for a moment: "Yes, okay." He stuttered a bit, and his Lamani with a slight accent was not as fluent as He Ren's.
"Sorry, I don't know where you are from. Because guests from the east will also come." The boy said this, using a wooden pen to write down what the group wanted on the wax board, and then bowed in Japanese etiquette. He trotted back to the kitchen.
"To the east?" the Luoan girl asked curiously.
"Otolo." The sage shrugged: "Didn't I cram in geography knowledge when I came here by boat? Although many things are unclear and there are some gaps."
"But Otolo is not to the west of Rigar." The stunned young man next to him was a little confused, and the doctor lady who was also following them had her eyes shining: "Is it the spherical theory, which is already recognized as the correct answer in La Mo? Crescent Moon still has some disputes about this.”
"I see, no wonder Lamo's ship can sail such a long distance." She nodded to herself, Galeva couldn't quite follow Ling's thoughts, and Mira next to her pressed the entire side of her face against Ling Liang's. On the wooden table, he yelled: "I'm so hungry, teacher, why do you want stew?"
Apparently hunger had caused the white-haired girl to lose her ability to think and explore. She clutched her stomach and put her face on the table, her little eyebrows knitted together, while Henry shrugged again: "Don't follow if you think it's too slow. I’ll order it.”
"I don't know which one is delicious." She muttered. Fortunately, long-consuming dishes like stews are usually cooked in large pots, so they didn't have to wait too long.
The hot Southern Laman style stew was served quickly, and the Rigal stew served on a Japanese-style earthenware plate looked as out of place as anything else in the shop. The bright red color of the tomato soup made Miss Doctor, who had never seen it before, swallow her saliva and hesitate. However, Lulu, who was also seeing this kind of food for the first time, went over to smell it and directly picked up the spoon.
Hunters who eat whatever they can and ladies who are pampered scholars have very different attitudes towards new foods.
Abundant knowledge sometimes does not necessarily bring confidence. The truth is that those who don’t know are fearless. Precisely because we know a lot of things and even have fixed ideas to a certain extent, the speed of accepting new things will be slower. This is the same everywhere.
The bright red and sour tomatoes may be something that traditional Japanese people have never seen before.
Although this shop can use it freely, it seems that the seeds have been brought and grown locally, but it is still difficult to promote its special flavor in Xinyue Continent.
Southern Lamani cuisine is always inseparable from the presence of tomatoes. The bright red stews and various noodle soups are proof of the pure pedigree of a Lamani restaurant.
The stew that the group tasted is a home-cooked dish. Although its soup can be eaten with bread or pasta, depending on the ingredients added, it can also be eaten as a staple food on its own.
This is how the stew they ate this time was made.
The diced meat and onions are first stir-fried over low heat with oil to bring out the aroma, then added to the pot and simmered first. Then add potatoes, tomatoes and carrots. The seasoning is made with coarse salt from the seaside, and the original version in the Rigar continent also adds some pepper, but the Crescent Continent version that everyone eats uses local cardamom and cloves - this kind of spice is only used by a few people. Used in cooking.
Slowly simmer for hours until everything is saturated with broth, turning tough meats into tender, easy-to-eat dishes.
"It should be lamb leg meat." The meat that has been stewed for a long time will fall apart after being gently manipulated with a wooden spoon. The shredded meat inside is red, plump and juicy. The aroma entices one to pick up the spoon, and once in the mouth it does not disappoint.
The rich flavors and the sometimes crisp and sometimes tender texture of different ingredients made people very fascinated. Even though they were hesitant at first, in the end even the two relatively locals were able to eat it.
This is partly due to the fact that the stew has been adapted to local tastes.
There are not many people with friendly faces in the restaurant. Although there are not many samurai nobles with dark blue hair, it can be seen that the locals have a certain degree of acceptance of them.
The taste of the stew is lighter than Rigar's original version, and there are not many pungent onions. Perhaps due to the different varieties of tomatoes, people prefer umami flavor that is much stronger than sourness.
Unique, familiar yet different.
Like all dishes that travel to foreign lands, this Southern Laman stew has been transformed by local customs.
It's just that it's a bit funny to eat such a stew that has nothing to do with seafood even though you are at the beach.
This restaurant is obviously still relatively ordinary. Although the meat-containing dishes are more expensive, several people can be satisfied with just one stew. Before leaving, Henry went to the kitchen to say hello to the chef and wanted to know if he could buy some portable ingredients. In addition to being used for his own small stove, he also brought some condolences to the missionaries who could not go out and Joshua who was responsible for taking care of them. mean.
The poor missionary and his entourage had clearly arrived at a place with many Lamanite-style restaurants but could not go out, so they were brought some bread and bread to comfort them.
Henry's conversation with the chef was heard by the Luoan girl who was full of food.
This store has a longer history than imagined, and has been open for two generations. The young servant boy who came to ask them what they wanted was a second-generation Lamanite born on the land of Crescent Continent.
The reason why they left their hometown and came here to open a shop might not end until night, so the sage didn't ask, but looking at them busy in and out here, he thought of the young Raman who was stuttering. I am afraid that for him, his ancestral homeland has become a concept in fairy tales.
Xinjing restricted the Nanman merchant ships from running around, but it did not restrict them from advancing by land or where they could settle down.
This is a land that many people in Rigar do not even know exists, and for this reason, it has become an excellent place to start a new life for those who want to escape the past.
Although it can be seen from this shop that has been here for several generations but still looks out of place, it is probably impossible to completely integrate into the Kingdom of the Moon.
They will always be strangers.
Local Japanese people will come to taste it for a temporary novelty, and maybe some people will like it and come more often.
But they will always be southern barbarians.
Everything in New Moon Continent is a perfect closed loop, so perfect that there is no room for any extraneous details.
Leaving home and traveling across the ocean. The second generation born in a foreign land like this young domestic helper neither recognizes the homeland of their ancestors nor fully integrates into it. They are like rootless grass, unable to find their true destination anywhere.
How many Southern Barbarians are like this in this land?
The few thoughts revealed in the conversation touched Mira's sensitivity as a Luoan - Luoan is an exiled nation. Although with the help of the teacher, the West Coast has found someone who is willing to accept Luoan, this is still a deep feeling. Memories buried deep in the soul of their nation.
The homeland of the chef, boy and other servants in the store is in the south, even though they may not be able to go back for some reason.
But at least they know it's there.
Where is the homeland of the Roan people?
She thought of the legends of her own nation, and then looked at Lulu next to her who had eaten and closed her eyes to rest. Somewhere in the air, Mira felt that she might be able to find the answer during this trip to New Moon Continent.
As soon as I walked out of the store, the salty sea breeze hit my face again.
There was a roadside stall next to Kazuzu selling "Ebi-yaki!" Mira was a little curious, and after taking a closer look, she asked Aya, only to find out that the so-called Ebi is what Rigal calls "shrimp" - because it has a long It has a long beard, so Kazuto calls it Ebi.
The so-called Ebi-yaki is something that fishermen don't want to sell unsightly shrimps, spread them out with green onions and flour and fry them.
Because it was cheap food, it didn't even have much oil or water, but after walking out of the door, the Luoan girl thought she was quite satisfied with the stew and looked at it.
The glutton is on the move again.
"You." The sage shook his head helplessly.
There is no convenient organization like the Mercenary Guild in Xinyue Continent, and their consumption became relatively frugal even when they were unable to take on tasks to maintain monetary income. In the past, Luoan girls often spent a lot of money on books. This situation has also embarrassingly hit a wall in Xinyuezhou - because cheap knowledge is taught for free in the academy, while advanced knowledge is controlled by the academy.
As a foreigner, she couldn't give up her life so far and study hard to become a scholar.
Because of this series of reasons, more money can only be spent on food.
Holding a pan-fried shrimp cake wrapped in lotus leaves, the Luoan girl walked and ate in an inelegant manner and set foot on the road back to the hotel together with other people beside her who sighed at her appetite.
Henry bought a lot of things in large and small packages, including several Kazuto-style clay pots. Even though they were sealed, the strong smell of pickled products still wafted out.
Smoked meats, cheeses and Rigal-style pasta can be stored for a long time as long as they are kept dry. In addition, the sage also bought some spices - not much, because Yajiro and the others are responsible for bulk food. When it came to purchasing, he could only get some Rigal-flavored things and start a small business occasionally.
There were people coming and going in the crowded fishing port, and their group didn't attract much attention.
When we returned to the hotel, the carriage at the door was filled with supplies and there was one missing carriage. It seemed that the samurai had solved the problem. But the air inside was strangely quiet. The sage and the Luoan girl exchanged glances, and both secretly prepared to draw their weapons.
But the expected danger did not come.
But this didn't make people feel relaxed at all.
Almost all the Qingtian family warriors behind the door had gloomy faces.
Ayong and his group, who had already eased their relationship with Henry, glared at the sage fiercely when they saw the sage pushing in the door. Yajiro raised his head and glanced at him, but immediately looked away.
The reason may be that they were surrounded by an old man and a young man, a master and a servant.
That was a servant of the Aoda family and Yajiro's sister.
And they brought it.
It was the news of the destruction of the Qingtian family.
